The U.S. Patent Office has granted Wegener a patent for technology used in conditional access systems for decrypting data within a satellite broadcast system, the company said Tuesday.

Patent 7206411, titled the "Rapid decryption of data by key synchronization and indexing," covers the quick restoration of integrated receiver/decoder (IRD) decryption authorization after the loss of a satellite signal.

In media networks of more than 1000 satellite receivers, traditional methods of receiver re-authorization can take up to two minutes of on-air time. Wegener's solution reduces the re-authorization time following a loss of signal incident or a deliberate switch to another satellite carrier. By accessing special data within the conditional access stream itself, Wegener IRDs can determine if the decryption keys are up to date and thus may be used immediately rather than waiting for updated keys.

The FAA’s current rules and proposed ban on flight over people, requirement of visual line of sight and restriction on nighttime flying, effectively prohibit broadcasters from using UAS for newsgathering. ~ WMUR-TV General Manager Jeff Bartlett